4th, To hinder the governors of Quebec, East Florida and West Florida, from granting warrants of survey, or passing patents for lands, beyond the bounds of their respective governments.
5th, To forbid the governors of any other colonies or plantations in America, from granting warrants or passing patents for lands, beyond the heads or sources of any of the rivers, which fall into the Atlantic Ocean from the west or north-west, or upon any lands whatever, "which, not having been ceded to or purchased by the King, are reserved to the said Indians, or any of them."
6th, To reserve, "for the present," under the King's sovereignty, protection, and dominion, for the use of the said Indians, all the lands not included within the limits of the said three new governments, or within the limits of the Hudson's Bay company; as also, all the lands lying to the westward of the sources of the rivers, which fall into the sea from the west and north-west, and forbidding the King's subjects, from making any purchases of settlements whatever, or taking possession of the lands so reserved, without his Majesty's leave and licence first obtained.
7th, To require all persons, who had made settlements on lands, not purchased by the King from the Indians, to remove from such settlements.
8th, To regulate the future purchases of lands from the Indians, within such parts as his Majesty, by that proclamation, permitted settlements to be made.
9th, To declare, that the trade with the Indians should be free and open to all his Majesty's subjects, and to prescribe the manner how it shall be carried on.
And lastly, To require all military officers, and the superintendants of Indian affairs, to seize and apprehend all persons who stood charged with treasons, murders, &c. and who had fled from justice, and taken refuge in the reserved lands of the Indians, to send such persons to the colony, where they stood accused.
From this proclamation, therefore, it is obvious, that the sole design of it, independent of the establishment of the three new governments, ascertaining their respective boundaries, rewarding the officers and soldiers, and regulating the Indian trade, and apprehending felons, was to convince the Indians "of his Majesty's justice and determined resolution to remove all reasonable cause of discontent," by interdicting all settlements on land, not ceded to or purchased by his Majesty; and declaring it to be, as we have already mentioned, his royal will and pleasure, "for the present, to reserve, under his sovereignty, protection, and dominion, for the use of the Indians, all the lands and territories lying to the westward of the sources of the rivers which fall into the sea from the west and north-west."—Can any words express more decisively the royal intention?—Do they not explicitly mention, That the territory is, at present, reserved under his Majesty's protection, for the use of the Indians?—And as the Indians had no use for those lands, which are bounded westerly by the south-east side of the river Ohio, either for residence or hunting, they were willing to sell them; and accordingly did sell them to the King in November 1768, (the occasion of which sale will be fully explained in our observations on the succeeding paragraphs of the Report).—Of course, the proclamation, so far as it regarded the settlement of the lands included within that purchase, has absolutely and undoubtedly ceased.—The late Mr. Grenville, who was, at the time of issuing this proclamation, the minister of this kingdom, always admitted, that the design of it was totally accomplished, so soon as the country was purchased of the natives.
IV. In this paragraph, the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations mention two reasons for his Majesty's entering into engagements with the Indians, for fixing a more precise and determinate boundary line, than was settled by the proclamation of October 1763, viz.
1st, Partly for want of precision in the one intended to be marked by the proclamation of 1763.